The Decameron — Episode 4 “The Mood is Soiled” Recap & Review

Episode 4 Recap

The recap of episode 4 of The Decameron titled “The Mood is Soiled” starts at breakfast with the guests doing their own thing. Misia asks Pampinea to look at the photo of Leonardo on the wall to ensure her child has the same virtues as its father. While Filomena gives Pampinea a manicure, Licisca holds open a book for Tindaro to read.

Dioneo watches the two from afar as he is in exile for his crime. Tindaro asks Licisca to get him a drink. In private, Dioneo asks Licisca to give him a chance to explain himself. Licisca refuses to listen to Dioneo and takes the drink back to Tindaro. At the same time, Sirisco tries to claim Pampinea’s child as his own but she dismisses him. Neifile is dressed in all black, as a penance for her lustful thoughts. She starts getting upset with Panfilo and goes away.

Dioneo tries to talk to her but Neifile lashes out at him as well. Dioneo tells Neifile that he only came to save her from the well because Panfilo paid him. Neifile is shocked but the group is distracted when new guests show up at the villa. Sirisco and Panfilo welcome Ruggiero and his friends, hoping they will put an end to Pampinea’s rule. Sirisco tells Ruggiero that Leonardo was not at the villa.

Ruggiero and his friends decide to drink and make merry until Leonardo returns. Pampinea welcomes Ruggiero and introduces herself as Leonardo’s wife and the mother of his child. Tindaro suspects that Ruggiero and his friends were infected by the pestilence but the latter denies it. He asks about Licisca who introduces herself as Filomena, the cousin of Leonardo.

Ruggiero takes his words back about sleeping with Licisca and asks the servants to set up a feast for them. Stratilia is furious at Sirisco for putting the peasant lives on the line by bringing Ruggiero into Villa Santa. In the kitchen, Misia and Filomena bond while preparing for the feast. Filomena loses her temper and comes clean about being the daughter of Eduardo.

Misia does not believe Filomena when she calls Licisca a fraud. Filomena asks Misia to help her in trying to get Pampinea to banish Licisca for her act. Misia warns Filomena against acting out but the latter is adamant about taking back her place as a lady. Meanwhile, Ruggiero narrates stories of his sexual endeavours at the dinner table and Pampinea feels out of place.

Ruggiero continues to talk about all the fun he and his friends have been having. The bard, Giovanni, tells Pampinea that Ruggiero and his friends are not letting him go. Panfilo introduces himself and Ruggiero points out how his family was bankrupt and ruined. He calls Panfilo for hiding out at the villa and Neifile joins Ruggiero in mocking her husband.

Ruggiero also forgives Dioneo of his exile which makes Tindaro upset. He leaves the dinner party and goes to his room. Licisca refuses to join Tindaro as Ruggiero and his friends mock him. Pampinea tries to get the feast to end but Ruggiero and his friends are not having it. Pampinea goes to her room in fury as Filomena and Misia follow after her to calm her down.

Filomena uses the opportunity to tell Pampinea the truth about her identity. Pampinea ignores the story and goes to her room. Filomena is shocked by Pampinea’s reaction. Meanwhile, Tindaro goes to the kitchen while suffering from a panic attack after being mocked at the dinner table. Stratilia scolds Tindaro and challenges him to punish her. She stomps over his chest aggressively which tends to turn him on.

While the rest of the guests are celebrating, Misia consoles Filomena who is crying by the dinner table. Misia and Filomena hold hands as the guests continue to drink and party. Pampinea comes back to join the party and tries to make it end but the guests keep dancing and singing. Ruggiero asks the party to be taken to Leonardo’s secret parlour.

Pampinea is shocked to learn the sexual nature of the paintings and portraits in the parlour. She is further embarrassed to see sexual images of Leonardo with different women. Ruggiero adds fuel to the fire by claiming that the parlour has a secret exit for the whores. Neifile tries to control her sexual urges but Ruggiero keeps hitting on her.

Dioneo takes the moment to talk to Licisca but she ignores him. Pampinea asks Sirisco to get Ruggiero and his men to leave. Sirisco refuses to comply which gets Pampinea upset. She starts yelling out of anger which makes Ruggiero and his friends laugh. Panfilo takes Sirisco outside and asks him to stop instigating Pampinea.

Panfilo tells Sirisco that Ruggiero is depleting the resources of the villa and that they need to send him away. Sirisco continues to blame Pampinea for the doom of the villa. Panfilo asks Sirisco to keep his issues with Pampinea at bay and leave him to handle this matter. Panfilo goes back inside the parlour and finds Neifile sitting on Ruggiero’s lap. She forces Panfilo to drink alcohol to punish him for lying to her.

Just then, a fight breaks out between two of Ruggiero’s friends and Giovanni ends up dying in the process. Ruggiero and his friends laugh like maniacs which makes all the older guests of the villa see just how messed up things were. Pampinea tries to kick Ruggiero out of the house by screaming at him but the latter refuses.

Misia and Filomena stand up for Pampinea but Ruggiero asks his friend Lorenzo to teach Filomena a lesson by raping her. Misia tries to attack Lorenzo and cries, begging Ruggiero to spare Filomena because she is a lady. Licisca comes clean with the truth and reveals that she was Filomena’s maid and that Filomena was Leonardo’s cousin.

Ruggiero calls the group a gang of miscreants and asks what had happened to Leonardo. Just then, Sirisco shows up with Leonardo’s head and reveals to Ruggiero that his cousin had died because of the plague. Ruggiero gets furious at Sirisco for cutting his cousin’s head and banishes him along with both Filomena and Licisca.

He also kicks out Panfilo, Stratilia, Tindaro, Misia and Pampinea but allows Dioneo and Neifile to stay at the villa with him. The group is shocked to see a group of whores enter the villa through the front door as the episode comes to an end. Now that we are done with the recap of Episode 4 of The Decameron, let’s head on to the review.

The Episode Review

Oh man, what an episode this was! As hard as the makers are trying to make this show seem like there has been a long time passing between episodes, it feels like the timeline of the episodes is in quick succession of one another. This makes it hard for viewers to believe that the guests have been suffering due to the atrocities of Pampinea. 

Ruggiero did a lot more damage in one day than Pampinea did in months and we can see that in the way Panfilo reacts to Sorisco’s behaviour. It looks like Sirisco is trying to sabotage everyone in hopes of exposing Pampinea’s lie but what he does not see is that he is the one who convinced her to lie in the first place.

With Neifile and Dioneo still inside the villa as the whores enter, I am excited to see if Neifile will finally end up having sex while her husband is banished from the villa. Moreover, I am excited to see what Dioneo does now that Licisca’s secret is out and she has confessed to being a handmaiden to Filomena and not the lady herself.